What Farmers Do on a Monday…

Australian farmers yesterday went quietly about their business…

Many rose early to work on raising their crops, others to tend their animals, some raised a sweat repairing fences, with a majority ensuring water and feed supplies for their stock. Some were involved with courses to hone their management or technical skills, a number took part in webinars or used cutting-edge digital technology to become more efficient. Some co-ordinated employees, prepared their business bookwork for tax time, fed poddies, called a vet to tend an injured animal, or helped neighbours in need.

It is usually quiet work, food production. It is not noisy or attention-seeking. Farmers rarely stick their necks out, and it takes something pretty earth-shattering to cause them to up sticks and protest in the streets… it’s beyond imagination that we would consider invading a business or someone’s family space to impose our world views.

That’s what happened yesterday. Animal activists laid siege to small farms and abattoirs, and stopped traffic in the streets of Melbourne. Promoting their own propaganda (marketed as a ‘documentary’), chaining themselves to machinery and demanding that businesses handed over animals to them (three sheep from a family-run abattoir near Warwick) in order to get them to leave, and letting calves out onto a road. I won’t link to their live-feeds or their posts because, frankly, I don’t want to reward their crazy antics. But on not one of their posts or footage did I see ANY evidence of mistreatment of animals. Not ONE.

In fact the worst thing I saw was something caused by the activists…

We are very lucky to live in a first-world country that allows people to protest issues. Of this there is no doubt. But sometimes protests go too far. Sometimes they intimidate and hurt people who are doing nothing wrong. They misrepresent entire industries. And in our wonderful free country, animal activists’* propaganda is allowed to be sold as ‘fact’…

I like to think I am an empathic person. I know that my family and friends who choose to be farmers are too. We care for animals in a ‘job’ we consider our calling – in real terms, every single day. We do these things quietly, without fuss. It’s what we do and we love it deeply.

I get that the urban population often don’t get to SEE farming activity. I lived as a city girl, I know how isolating from our food chain it can be. I have always encouraged other primary producers to share their lives a little more, as I do on my blog, and here. It would be easy for us to all feel victimized, to crawl into our shells, to ‘shut up shop’ (as the poor Gippy Goat Café owners were forced to after hideous ongoing harassment by activists).
But I don’t think there has EVER been a more important time for farmers to step out and share what we do…

HOW we farm. WHY we farm. How MUCH we care for our stock. How that investment goes BEYOND financial. (And to reinforce the fact that ill-treated animals actually result in terrible financial outcomes anyway!)

After the vilifying attacks on fellow food-producers in various parts of our beautiful, free country yesterday, I can feel a change beginning. Farmers stepping forward, speaking out, uniting. Perhaps this is one of the silver linings of the activist-inflicted angst being added to the emotional load farmers already carry.

It also did us all good to see so many of you speaking out and standing solidly with farmers yesterday – assuring us that most Aussies know we do our jobs with care and pride. It means a lot. It makes it worthwhile.

Thankyou.🙏🙏

Keep reaching out to us, and we will keep sharing our stories with you. I promise.

Amanda (BB)

💚💚💚🐂🐎🐂🐎🐕💚💚💚

*You will notice I am NOT railing against vegans – these activists aren’t necessarily vegan. I have noted some people claiming to take part in these activism activities who confess to being ‘omnivores’ and I happen to know a number of people who choose to be vegan (and some whose bodies force them to eat this way) who are wonderful people, who would never attack people like that. To those defending our work: please let’s not make terrible, sweeping generalisations – let’s not stoop to reflecting the terrible, sweeping generalisations being made about our industry.